Ace Trucking Co.
Ace Trucking Co. was a long-running comedy science fiction serial by writers Alan Grant and John Wagner and artist Massimo Belardinelli which ran intermittently in 2000 AD from prog 232 (October 1981) to prog 498 (1986) before returning briefly in the 1989 2000 AD Annual. Heavily influenced by the 1970s craze for CB radio (with the lead character constantly speaking in futuristic CB slang), the series followed the misadventures of the ambitious but frequently inept space trucker Ace Garp and the crew of Speedo Ghost, his ship: first mate G.B.H (Dead), engineer Feek the Freak and ship's computer Ghost. They were later joined by Chiefy Pig-Rat, a sentient alien rodent who Feek adopted as a kind of pet. The series was unusual in that all the main characters were non-humans, except for Ace's recurring nemesis Jago Kane, a trucker from Earth (which was never visited in the series), a fact which allowed Bellardinelli to give his imagination free rein when designing characters. (Ian Gibson also drew one story, 'Hell's Pocket' in progs 239 to 243). Over the course of 19 stories over six years, Ace and his crew faced numerous challenges, including ravenous Kleggs (a species of alien which had actually originated in the Judge Dredd series), competition from Jago Kane and the pirate Captain Evil Blood, and encounters with various alien civilizations, one of which believed them to be gods, as well as Ace encountering a parallel universe version of himself! The crew's adventures came to a temporary halt in a one-off story in the 1989 annual (published in late 1988) with Ace in prison, vowing to regain control of his company from his own mutinous crew, who had taken it over following his apparent death. Ace and the gang were next seen in the ''2000 AD Sci-Fi Special'' of 2015. Notes Wagner and Grant apparently became tired of writing the strip after a time and repeatedly attempted to end it, on one occasion going so far as to have Ace commit suicide by flying into a star while under the misapprehension that he had a terminal disease, but it always returned due to reader demand. At one point, 2000 AD gave away a 'Space Trucker's Dictionary' in parts over the course of several issues as a guide to the slang spoken by Ace and his cronies. Characters AceGarp.jpg|''Ace Garp'' G.B.H. profile picture.jpg|''G.B.H (Dead)'' Feek the Freak.png|''Feek the Freak'' Chiefy Pig-Rat.jpg|''Chiefy Pig-Rat'' Ghost 3.jpg|''Ghost'' Jago Kane 2.jpg|''Jago Kane'' Stories * 'The Kleggs' (progs 232 to 236, 1981) * 'Hell's Pocket' (progs 239 to 243, 1981) * 'Lugjack' (progs 244 to 250, 1982) * 'The Great Mush Rush' (progs 251 to 258, 1982) * 'The Ughbug Bloos' (prog 259, 1982) * 'Last Lug to Abbo Dabbo' (progs 260 to 267, 1982) * 'Joobaloo' (progs 268 to 272, 1982) * 'Too Many Bams' (progs 273 to 278, 1982) * 'The Kloistar Run' (progs 279 to 285, 1982) * 'Stoop Coop Soup' (progs 288 to 293, 1982) * 'Bamfeezled' (2000 AD Sci-Fi Special Vol 1 5) * 'On the Dangle' (progs 378 to 386, 1984) * 'Strike!' (progs 387 to 390 and progs 392 to 400, 1984-1985) * 'The Croakside Trip' (progs 428 to 433, 1985) * 'Stowaway Lugjacker' (2000 AD Annual 1986) * 'Whatever Happened to Ace Garp' (prog 451, 1986) * 'The Doppelgarp' (progs 452 to 472, 1986) * 'The Garpetbaggers' (progs 475 to 483 and 485 to 498, 1986) * 'The Homecoming' (2000 AD Annual 1989) * 'Star's Truck' (2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2015) * 'The Banned Brand Stand' (2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2016) Dictionary Space truckers dictionary 1.jpg|''ABBO DABBO to FLAN'' Space truckers dictionary 2.jpg|''FLIPFLOP to NOODLE-U'' Space truckers dictionary 3.jpg|''OFFICIAL PAIN to ZIPPO'' Category:2000 AD strips Category:IPC Adventure strips Category:Adventure strips Category:Massimo Belardinelli/Creator Category:John Wagner/Creator Category:Alan Grant/Creator Category:Alan Grant/Writer Category:John Wagner/Writer Category:Massimo Belardinelli/Artist Category:Ian Gibson/Artist Category:Eddie Robson/Writer Category:Nick Dyer/Artist Category:Studio Giolitti/Artist Category:Nigel Dobbyn/Artist Category:Nigel Dobbyn/Penciler Category:Nigel Dobbyn/Inker Category:Ellie De Ville/Letterer